From Edward To Nessie: The Truth About Vampires
by DragonFairyDust
Summary: Edward has always hated his vampiric nature. But ever since Nessie came into his life, he has had a lot to reconsider. And now, during a tender father-daughter moment, he explains to her why it actually rocks to be a Cullen. Other vampires just seem silly in comparison.
1. The Damned

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Twilight or any of the story's characters.

They belong to author Stephenie Meyer. This is simply my obsession with the popular series playing out.

From Edward To Nessie – Vampirism 101

"Damned? Damned? Who is damned?"

Edward threw down the thick leather-bound book that he was reading onto a huge mahogany table, and fixed an intense look at his daughter.

"Vamps are, apparently…"

Nessie answered, casually, tossing her reddish-brown curls back and shrugging. She shut the door of Edward's study, walked over to the table and plopped herself down onto a cosy leather chair that placed her directly opposite her father. The half-smile on her exquisite face didn't match her gloomy mood or the even gloomier subject of her discussion.

"Wait… you've been talking about vampires? With _whom_?" Edward's eyes narrowed, his usually soothing voice hardening a little. He hardly ever sounded stern when he talked to his daughter. But lately, Nessie was becoming something of a rebel.

An inevitable change, he supposed, with the onset of adolescence. For the most part, she was incredibly advanced for a twelve year old. But emotional maturity was a more complex facet of growth. It could not be gauged with the measuring tape that marked her height at five-foot five, and it could not be encouraged only with books and other intellectual stimulants as her astronomical intelligence quotient could.

As much as Edward wanted to grant his daughter room to mature, to discover the world and experience life, their family's lifestyle was controlled by a set of strict guidelines which safeguarded them from the threat of exposure to the world. This limited Nessie's avenues to learn and blossom. Edward, fully knowing this, overcompensated by lavishing her with lots of attention and expensive gifts. And a twenty-four hour mental surveillance that carefully monitored her happiness levels. Quite a simple mission, for a telepathic father. Edward would do anything to ensure that Nessie was happy and healthy. He drew the line though, at letting her chat with whomever she wanted about vampirism.

"Oh, I was chatting with Uncle Em, dad… on the _Magic Ultimo_ forum."

"Oh… and how did the topic come about?"

"I, as, Brigit, goddess of fire, easily destroyed the whole giant population of _Kyros_ because they had kidnapped the moon fairies of _Helion_ and ripped off their wings… for fun or for monetary value, who knows…"

"That's quite violent Nessie. What level of play is that?" Edward had no objections to his daughter playing her favourite online role-playing game. Typically. Her _Magic Ultimo_ adventures usually involved creating spells and breeding quirky magical creatures. Now he wondered about all the wing-ripping and the population destroying… he would have to speak to Emmet, the game co-creator and his brother, about this.

"Uh… I'm not sure dad," she almost-always blushed a faint pink and dimpled when she fibbed. "The point is, after I destroyed the whole giant population, there was nobody but Uncle Em himself to talk to while the other online players logged off to reboot…" That was not surprising. Even as a half-vampire, Nessie's reflexes were too fast to contest with humans. It makes sense that the only one who could escape her (or Brigit's) wrathful fire, was her "uncle" Emmet, as he was the only other vampire who would be playing.

"Go on…"

"So I suggested to Uncle Em that he could create an emergency vampirization system, for anybody who was dying. He said that he'd consider it, but vampires would have to only be baddies in the game… Because everybody knows that we're damned." Her soft chocolate eyes were pleading with her father to contradict her.

"As in _hell_." She emphasized, revealing more of her horror at the mere thought.

"As in final destination for the villains of the world, dad," she stressed again, when he seemed to not hear her.

"Nessie… I know what damned means." Edward kept calm. He wondered how to go about this. The subject of vampirism was a touchy one, even for him, and every other member of their family. He would have to be open while he honestly expressed his views, and let Nessie some room to form her own opinions on it. He got up, walked to the door and called out softly, "Esme, can we have some chocolate ice cream in here please?"

Nessie swivelled in the chair and looked at her dad uncertainly.

"Errr…. Dad? You don't eat chocolate ice cream."

"I know, sweetheart. It's for you."

"I really don't feel like some chocolate ice cream right now…" she wrinkled her forehead in confusion.

"I think you should have some. It'll help you comprehend some of the things that I'm about to explain to you right now…"

"Really… Chocolate ice cream, dad?" Nessie was doubtful, but happily welcomed the icy brown scoops two minutes later. She so loved the cold sensation and rich, sweet taste in her mouth. While she was younger, she described the sensation of eating ice-cream as joy-dizzy. Now, on her third spoonful, Edward walked over to the window on the back wall of his study and looked out at the scene outside with a grave look on his face.

"Nessie," he began… By all fictional accounts, yes, we're damned.

"Fictional?"

"You see, if you'd like to believe that all vampires are doomed from the start, then you were probably informed by a source that also believes that we do not have mirror reflections because we're soulless."

"And… we're not? Soulless, I mean?" Nessie sounded as though she wanted the answer to be 'no'.

"No. Well… We do not have souls. But nobody does, not even humans. And that is because we all ARE souls."

"I'm… a soul?"

"Yes, sweetheart. Any being that can love, get hurt, feel passion, anger and joy… is a soul. If you weren't a soul, you'd be a hollow shell, or a robot."

"Hey… that's interesting…!"

"Who or what do you think Nessie is? The marble hard skin? The long curly hair? The brown eyes? No, that incredibly beautiful exterior is only a house, for Nessie. Nessie is the being that lives within."


	2. Choices

_I am a soul_… Nessie's eyes filled with wonder at that notion. She had never thought of herself that way. If she was a soul, just as humans are, then surely she was much less of a horror than it was widely believed?

"I see. So why are vampires linked to all things scary? Even the unjustified stuff, like the fangs myth?" she asked her father, who had turned to study her facial expressions with a mixture of amusement and adoration.

"Well, like I said. Cultures and religions put us on the opposite end of all that's good and pure. This is mainly developed out of the human's instinct of self-preservation. Claims of sleeping in coffins and only coming out at night… it's all down the need to associate us with the opposite of life in light, in order to instil a fear and an avoidance of vampires."

Nessie exhaled. She didn't want to be scary to anyone. She loved people. She liked her human friends very much. And it hurt to cut ties with them every after a few years.

"Some myths also claim that we can be warded off by crosses and holy water…" Edward continued. "And that is because those objects are of significant religious importance. They are believed to possess power over evil. They are therefore used as amulets of protection for humans who against vampires."

"I get that. And of course none of it is true. But it is necessary dad. After all, vampires _do_ kill people." Nessie said, with a frown.

She recalled with perfect clarity her parents' lectures on good and bad, murder and human life appreciation. It's been years since she drank human blood and as she grew older, she understood better the need to avoid it altogether. All things considered, animal blood was much more humane. Donated human blood would make a nice compromise, if only there was enough of it to feed every vampire on earth and Nessie very much doubted that there was. Besides, drinking human blood only made animal blood taste much worse than it really did.

"Do all vampires do that Nessie? Do we, the Cullens, kill people for food?" Edward looked as though he was ill prepared to discuss this part. Someday, she would be told about a dark time in his past, when he had been something of a grim ripper. But at this point, he only needed to show Nessie her goodness.

"No, we don't. But we're the exception, dad. Ninety-nine percent of vampires do kill, and happily at that." A shadow moved over her face as she remembered a troubled time in her families' past. Showdown with the Volturi. The name still sent her heart fluttering at higher speeds than its normal birdwing flutter.

Edward saw the reaction and he quickly moved around the table, closing the space between them. He turned her chair to face him and gently took her hands in his. He didn't like the direction that her thoughts had taken. His protective instinct went as far as wanting to shield her from terrifying memories and nightmares too.

Using the hand-in-hand connection that he had established, Nessie asked him a question. His heart wrenched at the tortured tenor of her thoughts.

"That is true. But sweetheart, that can be attributed to lifestyle choices. As insensitive at it sounds. Just like there are good werewolves and those that choose to do harm," he paused to let that sink in. "There are also good humans and those that go around hurting their fellow humans. And so, there are good vampires and bad vampires."

Good werewolves, bad werewolves… That stuck out to her and veered her thoughts in a completely different direction. 2 Christmases ago, in Finnish Lapland. She remembered an encounter with a pack of 'true wolves' that gave her nightmares for a good few months. She called the monsters responsible for her trauma 'true wolves' to set them apart from her beloved wolf pack from the Quileute reservation of Forks, in the Olympic Peninsula.

It all began when her aunt Alice won the right to pick the destination of the family's next Christmas vaction. She picked Rovaniemi, a snow-covered Finnish city in which was the official town of Santa Claus, the famous Santa Claus Village and Santapark. It was an ideal place for the Cullens because the winter days of northern Europe would see no sun come out for weeks. And their physique made them impervious to the extremely frosty Artic temperatures.

Before they'd arrived, Nessie had pictured Christmas-light strewn streets, reindeer spotting and lots of jolly old men in red and white ringing bells, making merry for tourists and lots of hot, sweet confectioneries to guzzle. She was not disappointed. Most humans would find the Lapland too dark and too cold but for Nessie, it was just perfect. Her father had challenged her to learn as much Finnish as she could two week prior the trip. He was – as always – enthralled by her quick mind.

Edward, Jasper, Emmet and Nessie's grandpa, Carlisle, were most looking forward to the hazardous ski slopes of Suomu. They'd wait until the humans would clear out, of course, and then proceed to dare each other on a couple of thrilling avalanche-surfing contests. That was the period she realized just how – despite having lived for decades and centuries – _young_ at heart her family is. Her grandma Esme, aunts Alice and Rosalie, as well as her mother, Bella stuck to the less crazy activities that mostly took place in town, to let Nessie soak up the Christmas atmosphere.

It was an ideal vacation… until Christmas Eve. Alice, the family's usual danger lookout (a task made much simpler by her gift of precognition) missed 'seeing' a pack of 'true wolves' that would gang up on young Nessie and hold her hostage for half a day. All Nessie could remember was, one moment she had snuck away to a near-by jewellery store to buy a gift that would surprise her almost-omniscient aunt Alice (making last minute decisions were the key to escaping Alice's visions) and the next moment she was besieged by six, unnaturally strong men that reeked strongly of wet dog. They bound, gagged and shoved her roughly into the back of a dirty van. She remembered a prickly suction device being inserted into her mouth and her venom being forcibly drawn out from inside her through a tube.

She would later find out from her Uncle Jasper that in some parts of northern Europe, there were werewolf packs and clans that partook in a wide range of organized crime activities. One of these activities was zombie-breeding. Taking care not to terrify her too much, Jasper explained to Nessie about how human corpses were stolen from morgues and "resurrected" using a combination of vampire venom and some unknown element. But as corpses are just 'hollow-shells' with no souls, the emerging result of the gruesome experiments would be creatures that the world calls zombies, controlled and used by the wolf clans. Zombies were extremely dangerous and as humans were mostly in the dark about their origins, they had formed more myths about them.

So Nessie had unfortunately been captured by of one of those zombie-breeding clans, but was quickly rescued before she could come to any serious harm. She was, after all, the youngest and most adored member of a very powerful coven. Once it was discovered that she was missing, it took no less than a few hours to ascertain her whereabouts, and recover her through an effective search and rescue mission. Whatever clan had tried to keep her for her venom was missing six members by the time the Cullen brothers were done with them.

She had initially found it hard to believe that it was werewolves who could be that cruel and destructive. After all, the only werewolves that she had ever known had only ever acted as her protectors. This is why her father's words made sense. Maybe nobody, Nessie thought, no werewolf, human or vampire was evil by default. Maybe 'good' and 'bad' really were one's choice. She had often heard her family describe vampirism as an extreme version of humanity. And that is why, a bad vampire, is a much more extreme version of a villainous human being.

Back in the present, Nessie and Edward sat together like that, she musing and he listening to his daughter's musings. Which is why he was not caught off-guard when she asked out loud – "But _blood_, dad? Why do we consume _blood_? Isn't it because we're really dead and we need to suck out other creatures' life essence?"

But it was not as if she'd asked anything he had never wondered about before.

"No," he said, straightening up. "I don't think so. Humans are, by that definition, alive aren't they?"

"Yes."

"So they have no reason to suck out other creatures' life essence, do they?"

"I suppose not…"

"And yet, even they drink blood, Nessie."

"What?"


	3. Life Essence

"Nessie, your ice-cream is melting."

"Well, let it. So that its consistency matches my resolve that one day I'll come to understand at least one thing about this world!"

Edward laughed and zipped over to the bookcase on the wall behind her, surprising her as he always did when he moved at vampire speed. Seeing her father move around the room that swiftly always made Nessie feel wistful. She was half-human, so she was nowhere near as fast and as strong as a full-vampire. At any rate, she hoped that she had inherited some of her father's leonine dexterity, which impressed her a lot more than Alice's too dainty ballerina steps or Emmet's power-driven moves. Edward was a remarkable balanced composition of athleticism – understated strength, unmatched speed and catlike agility.

From the top shelf of the bookcase he pulled out a thick volume of papers bound by a dark green leather cover which was emblazoned with golden lettering on the top left hand corner. He thoughtfully stroked the make-shift book and laid it gently on the table in front of her.

"Nessie, what is life essence?"

"I guess, the human spirit," she answered, shrugging. "Whatever it is that keeps human hearts beating."

"And you suspect that vampires are dead, and we therefore need to steal this life essence from living creatures?"

"Yes."

There was a pause which made her look up. Edward looked as though he was having a hard time keeping a straight face. "You know, for a half-vampire-half-human, you have some pretty peculiar ideas about your existence."

"Dad, come on… This is no time to be laughing at my possibly half life essence."

"Okay, I'm sorry. This," he indicated the book , "is a thesis for one of the more interesting Phds that I have ever achieved."

Oh no. Science. Nessie could chat for hours on end with her father on great many subjects. Their shared love of music, for instance. She loved to spend hours listening to his many compositions which had sold in millions around the world and had earned him a collection of awards over the decades. One of Nessie's favourite ways to entertain visitors to the Cullen home was to regale them with stories of how, on her sixth birthday, she had finally discovered that the world-renowned late classical composer 'Masen King' was actually her own father.

(Edward had created the Masen King name in order to work in the music industry – it was impossible for a vampire to maintain a public persona – as they never age, for one. Continued media scrutiny was an avoided exposure risk for the whole family. Nobody but the Cullens' dedicated team of attorneys and accountants would ever know that the great famed 'Masen King' and the young Edward Cullen were actually one and the same. This was similar to Esme writing and having millions of romance novels published under the 'Olivia Childs' pseudonym. The world would never know that the beloved 'Olivia Childs' was actually a vampire – albeit a loving, maternal and non-threatening vampire).

"If you are going to bore me out of my half-essence despair, you are so going to succeed." Edward's extensive education in the various fields of sciences did not rank high on her favourite topics of discussion though.

"Wait… Hematophagy? Yes that sounds pretty bloody!" Apparently she had tried to dismiss this subject prematurely.

"Would you like to know what I discovered after two years dedicated to extensive research on the subject?"

"Yes…" she rolled her eyes in a 'that's why we're here' gesture. Bella once told her that she looked so like her father when she rolled her eyes.

"I discovered that we drink blood solely because it is a fluid tissue rich in nutritious proteins and lipids and it can be consumed without immense exertion. Blood contains all that our bodies need to subsist, just as food, air and water contain all that humans need to survive."

"So it is all biology, nothing more, nothing less?" she sounded sceptical.

"I think so."

She flipped through the pages of the leather bound volume and came across a section that was dedicated to case studies of societies that consumed blood in or as food.

"This is so eccentric. I do drink blood but this curious cocktail of blood and milk concocted by the African Maasai people," she screwed up her face and pretended to shudder at the thought.

"Oh and I definitely would go on a diet if Esme set these Blodplattar thingies on the breakfast table… what exactly are they?"

"Swedish blood pancakes."

"Oh yum. I'll dip them in some of this… Czernia?"

"It's a blood soup from Poland…" That was more than enough to repulse her.

"So some humans do consume blood, although not in the way you led me to believe. Urg, I think I've just found my calling in life." Nessie closed the book and pushed it towards Edward.

"And what is that?" Edward was still laughing at her reactions.

"I am going to create a much tastier range of cuisine to appeal to half-vamps like me."

"That's wonderful, Renesmee."

Nessie then noticed a photograph that had slipped out from between the pages of his book. It was a picture of a woman of medium height, pale skin, icy blue eyes and a head of tangled blonde hair. She was attired in a robe decorated with strange mystical designs. She also was adorned in an array of golden jewellery on her hands and neck.

"Who is this?" she asked, holding up the photograph to her dad.

"Freja. An Icelandic woman that nearly proved that drinking blood isn't merely a biological process."

"Huh?" Nessie looked so agog at this new development that Edward sighed with resignation. He knew that she would make him tell her about Freja first, before he could suggest that they go downstairs to join the rest of the family in a board game that had just started. He decided that he'd better get it over and done with.

"There was once a time when our family thought that there were spiritual means to quench our thirst." He paused and gave her a wry look, as though he was ashamed of admitting it. "In the late seventies, we met a Nordic woman called Freja who claimed to be a descendant of a long line of 'realm guardian fey'," he drew quotation marks in the air with his hands as he said that.

"Fey? What's fey?" She was definitely interested.

"I guess you would call them fairies, but nothing like the _Magic Ultimo_ version."

"Wait a second… was she for real?" Nessie's pulse accelerated once more with eagerness.

"I have no idea. She was fascinated by our family. We usually cause an uncomfortable stir when we descend upon a new place, but that was the first time we arrived in a town that was already stirred up by the presence of another bizarre creature."

"What was so bizarre about her?"

"For one, she was drawn to us, not terrified, as most humans are. And she knew right away _what_ we were. I looked into her mind and it was so much more… vivacious than an average human mind. It was pulsating with immense encrypted information that I couldn't ever decode." He slipped into a reverie, evoking the memory.

"What was she guarding?"

"She claimed to be a portal guardian. Apparently her bloodline was responsible for keeping those who live in this realm to remain here and those who live in other realms to never cross over."

"Hold up… Realms?"

"You know Nessie, I was the most sceptical about that but… this world just might be vaster than any of us can ever conceive. There might be worlds all around us, alternate realities where beings that we know nothing about live."

"Do you think that maybe there's an all-vampire realm out there?" Her chocolate brown eyes were now shining at the possibilities that had just opened up.

"Maybe! But, back to the strange woman. She claimed to be running from a Scottish coven that had kept her prisoner for several years in order to utilize her gifts."

"Wow! And yet, she was not afraid of you?"

"She said that she recognized the golden hue of our eyes and its implications. She believed that we would not harm her." He stopped to let her process the words.

"So, how is she connected to the whole life essence business?"

"I'm getting there. Freja claimed to possess the ability to prepare a cure for vampire thirst. She called it 'blessed waters', and according to her, it was far more superior to blood. One drink of this 'blessed waters' and one would be sated for several months, while also feeling stronger."

"Dad… That is incredible! How did she claim to do that?"

"She said that by opening a portal to a spiritual realm," another quotation marks gesture, "in a fountain of water, the spirits from that realm, in an eager attempt to meet with the loved ones that they left behind in this world, would infuse their life essence into the water. By drinking the water that the spirits use as passage into our world, vampires would devour that sought-after life essence."

There was a several seconds-long pause. Then Nessie exhaled. "But… that just sounds a bit far-fetched and a lot creepy."

"For you and me both, sweetheart. I didn't want any part of it. But the fact that we entertained her for even more than a few minutes was indicative of how desperate our family was to live without killing innocent creatures. We would try anything."

"But of course the ghost-juice didn't work." About this, Nessie was confident.

"Actually, her 'blessed waters' appeared to work at first. Jasper, Rosalie and Esme all tried it and were cured of their thirst for a while…"

"So… so, she wasn't some crackpot chancer?"

"No, she definitely was. Freja was no realm portal guardian. She was a gifted hypnotist. She put strong suggestions deep in the recesses of their minds to stop thirsting. And it would've worked if they had not consequently grown physically weak."

"I see." Nessie sighed. "Well… there goes my life essence theory."

He made a move to get up, and cocked his head to the side, as a suggestion that they both better go downstairs to join the rest of the family.

"Dad," she said, while he ushered her through the door. "If you really have no qualms about vampirism, then why were you so dead-set against mom becoming a vampire?"

"Well…"

"She said that you were absolutely against it."

"Yes. I had my own reasons," he said, unwillingly.

"Which were?"

"I was afraid that your mother would turn out to be a Volturi-type of vampire."


	4. What Makes A Cullen, A Cullen

Edward and Renesmee stood side by side for a long moment, watching as two wrestlers circled each other inside a glass partition that separated the enormous Hazard Room from the rest of the Cullen Gym. The whole family had abandoned a card game in the living room earlier to come and watch the first ever vampire vs. android wrestling match.

"Welcome… to Emmet-heaven." Edward murmured in suppressed amusement to the petite, beautiful dark-haired girl with chocolate brown eyes and soft curls framing her face as Nessie looked up at him with a big laugh.

"What, smashing fighter-bots? It's Christmas for him right now!"

He smiled back, as much at what she said as at the colossal bear-like figure of his brother. An hour previously, the arrival of the fighter androids had disrupted the much less action-packed atmosphere that prevailed during a board game called _30 Seconds_. As always, Alice and Edward were not allowed to play because their abilities gave them an unfair advantage over the others. Edward was made referee, and Alice was left to her devices… or rather just one device – a tablet displaying her virtual closet and the web pages of _TrueChic_.

Alice only looked up when she felt the familiar onset of a humming sensation in her head, a sudden fogging of her vision and a feeling of being alienated from the crowded living room – signs of an unfolding vision.

In her vision she saw Tadashi Nakamura, or rather, Dash, as the Cullens had come to know him, driving onto their driveway in a monstrous truck. She probed the vision, trying to get an estimate of his arrival time. Four minutes.

"Dash's coming!" she announced when she regained her sight and hearing. But by then, almost everybody had gone from the room. Even Jasper, the man that usually held her hand with concerned tenderness when she had a vision, was nowhere near her this time.

_Edward_, she realized, with annoyance. Sometimes Edward just looked into her head while her vision was unfolding and announced it to the whole family before Alice could tell them herself. And, as the arrival of Dash was most feverishly anticipated, only Esme and Bella had stayed behind with Alice.

Dash had brought six magnificent futuristic fighter androids that Emmet had ordered six months previously. They were the most magnificent machines that Nessie had ever seen. Gigantic, silver and armoured with gadgets the she'd only seen in actions films. Emmet was practically hopping up and down with joy at the sight of them. Esme was clasping her still heart in fear.

Carlisle was stern. "You are only to switch them on in the Hazard Room. There should always be someone with you in the gym to turn them off when you can't…"

"These are just toys," Emmet interrupted the lecture. "For vampire boys. We'll probably smash them to pieces in a few minutes anyway."

"Dude I wouldn't count on that. These steel monsters are damn near indestructible," Dash warned. He would know. He was the technopathic inventor-vampire and family friend that had been nagged into creating the android set. His task was to come up with challenging partners for Jasper and Emmet for whenever they wanted to sharpen their fighting skills. In addition to equipping the fighter-bots with the most advanced array of weaponry (include built-in laser guns), they were loaded with various martial art programmes for hand-to-hand combat.

The only place in the whole house safe enough to utilize them was the Hazard Room, an impenetrable fortress that could contain all the havoc that the androids could wreak - away from Esme's most beloved furniture. It was also built by Dash to withstand even damage by an atomic bomb.

"As soon as Emmet loses, you're on," Edward said, jokingly.

"I'm practically a ninja by now, you know." Nessie boasted, knowing that there is no way she would be allowed near Emmet's fighting machines to prove her claim.

"Oh yeah?" Edward's look was teasing. "How come?"

"I won enough virtual fights to accumulate Ninja-level skill on _Magic Ultimo_."

"Wow, I'm honoured to be in the presence of such a skilled warrior," he teased again, his eyes sparkling with the laughter. Rosalie and Esme were holding hands, intermittently and simultaneously gasping while they watched Emmet being hurled across the floor by his foot, but getting up just in time to dodge the laser beam his fighter-bot had aimed at him. Jasper was reeling in excitement on the entrance of the Hazard Room, impatiently waiting for his turn.

"You never told me, you know…" Nessie's tone had turned serious.

"What?"

"Why you were not supportive from the onset when Mom wanted to turn into a vampire. I presume that she wanted to transform so that you could be together forever?" Nessie's eyes turned to Bella, who was warily watching Emmet's wrestling match from the other side of the gym, sitting next to a bored Alice. Alice could afford to relax. She had not foreseen any grave injuries for either Emmet or Jasper that would result from this ridiculous training session.

"You're right. I was not at all willing to sentence Bella to this life."

"Sentence?" Nessie looked confused. None of her family members looked as though they were imprisoned by their vampirism at the moment, and least of all Emmet, who was being thumped on the head by a mallet that had jutted out from where the arm of the android should have been (much to Jasper's amusement).

"Most humans who meet us for the first time only see a group of attractive-looking, wealthy and extraordinary-seeming people. When they find out _what_ we are, there is the immortality factor thrown in the mix. It all seems like an upgrade from normal life and the initial reaction is to desire transformation for themselves. That is what happened with your mother. She only saw what she thought were benefits and completely disregarded what I presented as disadvantages of having this life."

"But I would think mom's only motivation was to be with you."

"And you're right. But the first time that she expressed the desire to become a vampire, she said something along the lines of wanting to be Superman too." Edward grimaced at the memory. He didn't like the way Bella looked in it, in that hospital bed.

"Well dad, it makes sense to me. Apparently she was super-clumsy and constantly in danger… I would also get tired of the whole damsel-in-distress nonsense."

Edward burst out laughing at that. In so many ways, Nessie was so much like her mother. Then he grew serious again as more memories came flooding back. "I always wondered if it was my presence that was triggering all the bad luck around her. She seemed to be doing fine before she moved to Forks."

"Is that why you said no? Because you felt responsible for her wanting the transformation?"

"Yes. That, and the fact that taking away the life of a human is something none of us would ever do. Do you know what makes a Cullen, a Cullen?" He turned to fully look at her.

"Respect for human life?" The principle was drilled into her as soon as she turned old enough to form coherent sentences.

"Precisely. We treasure it above all else. Humanity, in whatever shape of form – clumsiness, bad luck-ridden or whatever else, is a divine gift. We respect that."

"So, transforming mom would have been murder in the Cullen books?"

"Absolutely."

"Even if she would restart life as better version of herself?" Nessie couldn't imagine her mother as being anything other than what she was currently.

"Now, that right there, Nessie, is that Volturi mind-set that I told you about. The essential difference between us and them is that they see humanity as a state of living that is much inferior to vampirism. They have little regard for human life. People only exist to be their food."

"Why did you think Mom would feel the same way?"

"Because at that time, she hated her humanity too. She cringed at the thought of growing older, which is a natural part of human life. She despised birthdays, celebrations, school dances… which are all a part of being human."

"Oh…"

"As vampires, we bring with us into this life the characteristics that defined us in our past life as humans. And these characteristics are intensified by vampirism. Emmet's carefree joviality, Carlisle's compassion, Esme's maternal sense and unconditional love... That is what defined them before they became vampires. In that way, being a vampire really brings out the strongest characteristics. And I was afraid that Bella would bring with her patent disdain for human life."

"And that makes for a dangerous vampire…"

"The struggle against our predatory instinct to not kill humans is more intense than I can ever explain to a human. It took a long, gruelling road for most of us in here, to attain the control over our thirsts that we displayed when Bella came into our life. She wasn't part of that long road, and so until she knew what it felt like, she underestimated that hardship. In high school Bella only saw the fruits of a ghastly inner struggle."

"I see… but still, likening her to a Volturi, dad?"

"Think about it Nessie. In order to have control over this severe thirst, we each have to hold on to the little humanity that was not destroyed in the fiery stages of transformation. We try to hold on to happy memories from our past lives to enable us to see the humans around us as people with lives and families. We try to remember what it felt like, to be human with hopes and dreams and families. Bella, at the time, wanted so desperately to let go of _her_ memories… she was so prepared to sever all connections with her family… and those are the factors that would make her a compassionate vampire, a vampire that retained some value of human life."

"She didn't turn into a humanity-despising Volturi type though." Nessie was usually plied with stories that painted Bella in an entirely different picture that she found this discussion mildly shocking.

"No, she didn't. And that is because she didn't choose to 'upgrade' from her humanity after all. Towards the end, and just before we had you, she had discovered aspects of her humanity that were beautiful and worth appreciating."

"Why do I get the feeling that I do not wanna go there…"

"Don't worry, I won't get too specific. The point is, ultimately, she gave her life for a purpose so much greater than the benefits of vampirism could ever offer her. I could not see the bigger picture at the time, so terrified I was of losing her… but she _knew_ that bringing you into the world was a worthy cause for which to sacrifice her life. And it would be worth the pain of transformation, the loss of association with her human family and the almighty thirst."

"Wow, dad, I'm honoured. I hope I can make it worth having me…" She turned away, furiously blushing at the reverent tone that always came into her father's voice when he talked about his love for her.

"Nessie, you have already made our lives worth living. We are all so blessed to have you. Given the chance to relive it all again, well… with a few, minor wolf-related alterations, I would happily do it all again. To have you in my life."

"Thank you daddy. Nobody chooses their family but if I could, I wouldn't be anywhere else in the world."

Edward put him arm around her and gave a gentle squeeze around her shoulders. They both turned back their attention to the wrestling match, both caught up in warm, loving thoughts while watching Emmet crouching, tensed to leap onto the android and rip off its head. Jasper was still in hysterics.


End file.
